President Trump’s rancorous threat to abandon Ukraine is stoking support for a long-debated proposal to use billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets to buy weapons for Ukraine and finance its reconstruction.
The money — roughly $300 billion owned by Russia’s central bank — was frozen by the United States, the European Union, Britain and others after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The aim was to punish President Vladimir V. Putin for his unprovoked attack and to cut off funds he could use to wage war.
As the war grinds on into its fourth year, a growing number of officials in Europe and elsewhere have been calling for the money to be released to directly compensate Ukraine.
It seems more likely now that the US will release them.
Can we start to freeze USA assets?
We might have to. Trump wants to remove their rules for whitewashing. The purpose is probably to funnel Russian money.
How its this question still going?
Why hasn’t it been done yet?
If the assets remain frozen then they can be used as bargaining chips.
A partial transfer could be useful, but a full transfer of assets to Ukraine would be counterproductive.
Bargaining chips for what? Negotiating peace? A truce? A cease fire? There’s been ample time to do that and here we are.
I think their point is that at some point there will have to be some form of peace negotiations
If you get less value from using the money for weapons than for using it as leverage in negotiations, then it’s a bad trade-off
Ah yes, because negotiations for peace with Russia worked so well for Ukraine before…
And now the USA are tagging in so they can also get the spoils.
I don’t understand the point you’re trying to make here, are you arguing that we should aim to keep the war going indefinitely? Because the only way a war ends without a negotiated settlement is with the total dissolution of one of the sides in the war. I don’t see Ukraine fully annexing Russia any time soon, frankly.
The war does need to end sometime, even if that time isn’t now, and creating a peace treaty that’s self-enforcing is the only way that works. If using that money as leverage (e.g. the funds are gradually unlocked as the treaty phases progress) makes a lasting peace viable that otherwise wouldn’t be, then it’s an option worth considering.
What if there is great value in repelling foreign invaders from your country? Ukraine needs all the funds, especially after a certain shithole country has withdrawn financial aid.
I’m not saying it’s necessarily the wrong choice to give the money to Ukraine, just pointing out that there is a tradeoff to be made.
Can we start with all Trump and Musk assets?
Yes, yes
long overdue, tbh.
